The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration this week after the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) quietly released tens of millions of dollars in Title X family planning funds that had been withheld from Planned Parenthood and other clinics since last spring, Politico reports.
Advocates say the restored funding can’t fully reverse the damage as dozens of clinics closed during the delay re unlikely to reopen.
“More than 800 service sites were unable to provide Title X services. Hundreds of thousands of patients were unable to get Title X services. So the impact was tremendous,” said Brigitte Amiri, the deputy director at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project who represented the clinics in the case. “So damage certainly was done as a result of their unlawful withholding of the funds.”
Despite releasing the funds, the Trump administration continues to defend in court much larger Planned Parenthood funding cuts approved by Congress last summer.
During the gap, clinics strained to stay afloat, with many tracking unreimbursed visits from low-income patients for birth control, STI testing, and other Title X services that they can now submit for federal repayment.
Last March, the administration told more than a dozen Title X providers, including nine Planned Parenthood affiliates, that their funding would be temporarily withheld over alleged civil rights and executive order violations. Clinics pushed back for months, arguing they were compliant. Some funds were restored over the summer, but others remained frozen until December, when HHS quietly approved retroactive payments without explanation.
Clare Coleman, who led the lawsuit, said “there was no basis for HHS withholding the grants. They didn’t have anything to stand on. We feel like without litigation, the money would be gone.”
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